


Morning Outing

by cafephan



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluffy angst but ends full fluff, I let Dan use comic sans clearly i'm a top author bye
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 18:58:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3907063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cafephan/pseuds/cafephan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Dan stumbles upon Phil’s late-night breakdown, he aims to set the record straight, but Phil seems to have other ideas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Morning Outing

All was quiet in the flat for once, no rustling of cereal packets nor mundane background noise of a late-night talk show. It was only 2am and Dan was fast asleep, contrary to a lot of fans’ belief.

It was a blissful time until nature called, and feet padded across the floor sloppily and other body movements kept to a minimum, sleep very much gripping the man.

When one is tired it is known that the senses are somewhat dulled, as the pejorative body is adamant to have its way, lulled into a slumber. For Dan, however, there is but one extraordinary exception.

The monotone humming of the distant laptop perked up his body, knowing something was out of place. They had decided to sleep separately that night due to Dan staying up just that much later to get more admin out of the way for the book, and Phil wanting an early night. An early night that was evidently not being utilised.

Dan placed an ear to the door warily, awaiting any other noise as an accompaniment to his theories. Something was askew, but he wasn’t sure if intruding was the right way to go about debunking it. Voices could be made out amongst the laptop’s humming, and Dan opened the door slightly to get a better idea of the situation.

The first thing he noticed was how the brightness of the laptop reflected much too easily from Phil’s cheeks as he watched the screen intently, almost causing a glittering effect. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together.

Dan was still tired to the extent of not being able to put the voices to faces, but it was evidently someone Phil was interested in watching, so odds are Dan would be too.

“Why are you still up?” he asked, voice thick due to the only socialisation for the last seven hours being typed characters from their publisher.

Phil simply shrugged and paused the video, but still didn’t make eye contact. Which was unusual enough in itself.

“What are you watching?” he attempted sparking conversation again, but to no avail. Phil simply pushed his glasses further up, and kept his gaze firmly on the laptop’s keyboard.

“Stuff” he mumbled as Dan was halfway between the door and the bed, but was soon laid beside him, stealing occasional gazes towards the laptop screen.

“I know we’re not the most organised computer users but thirty three tabs? I’m surprised it’s even working”

It was then that Dan properly focussed on what was onscreen, and the titles of the tabs which he could see. He noticed in the moment just how erratic and heavy Phil’s breathing was beside him, the much too frequent sniffles and the shaking.

Dan pressed his lips into a fine line and continued the video that Phil had paused prior, causing Shane and Joey to spring back into action, discussing the collage of them amongst other YouTubers (including Dan and Phil) highlighting their past traumas, however hyperbolic some may be.

_“College dropout? Okay, first, listen, Dan? Love you. But-“_

__Dan paused the video and looked over to Phil, who was biting his lip and had his eyes closed._ _

__“Is that what this is about?” Dan whispered, and Phil didn’t respond, just remained still and stared on at the screen, eyes glossed over._ _

__“I’m on there, too, why does nobody know who I am?” Phil’s voice was hoarse and barely audible, a squeak at most._ _

__“We literally met with Joey in New York not long ago?” Dan reminded his boyfriend, who shook his head indignantly and switched to another tab._ _

__“That’s not the point! Just look at all these!” he ordered, voice miraculously gaining substantial volume since his last delivery. He then got out of the bed and began pacing up and down his room._ _

__Albeit reluctantly, Dan switched to another YouTube tab, hastily closing its predecessor. After clicking play, he began to realise the pattern in the tabs._ _

___“I would snog Dan”_ _ _

_____“I would definitely marry Dan, who wouldn’t?”_ _ _ _ _

_______“Definitely snog Dan, he looks like he knows what he’s doing”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_________“Dan? Isnotonfire? I love him!”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________“I would definitely fuck Dan, no question. But Phil? I’m not so sure”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Upon hearing the revelations of various beacons of the YouTube community, Dan noticed Phil retreat into the corner of the room, and bring his knees up to his chest.

Knowing it would only be his next instruction regardless, Dan perused the rest of the tabs and the non-YouTube content was, in the majority, reams and reams of paragraphs with the topic of Dan and Phil at hand, each overall favouring Dan majorly over Phil, some in a more subtle way than others, even through the poetic conceits and over-elaborate metaphors the verdict was clear.

As the noise from the last video was closed, Phil let out a low, bitter laugh, capturing Dan’s attention wholly.

“You know, it’s quite funny if you put it into perspective. The gaming channel will have overtaken me soon, and that’s only because you’re on it” he stated, shaking his head at the nothingness in front of him and placing his hands over his face, muffled sobs seldom managing to escape.

It took a few seconds for Dan’s instincts to kick in, the twilight hours’ effect rapidly taking over and sleep gradually seeming all the more appealing, but Phil was more important, no matter the consequence.

With a few shaky steps and pathetic attempts to steady his equilibrium, Dan was sat cross-legged in front of Phil, words coming out in a flurry of illogical babbles. “I don’t really know how I can fix this, fix you, but at the risk of sounding straight out of a flop romance movie, I’m going to spend as long as it takes giving it my all” he whispered, careful not to agitate, upset or spark any other emotional wreckage onto his boyfriend.

With no other response Phil collapsed into Dan’s chest which, in a sleep-controlled state thus slowing the reflexes, caused him to fall softly to the ground, where they both remained for the next few hours, tangled in each other and a slight smile on Phil’s face contrasting with the dried transparent tracks as he drifted to match Dan’s slumbered state.

“You can’t comfort but I love you”

Oddly, the words caused Dan to snap out of the temporary unconsciousness and carefully untangle himself from Phil, who watched on wide-eyed, curious as to what had ruffled his boyfriend’s feathers.

Dan stood up and walked out of Phil’s room and presumably into his own, with not a word spoken. Immediately, Phil scrambled to an upright position and with a final glance to his laptop which laid in abandonment with all the tabs now closed, bit his lip and followed Dan’s actions from only a few seconds earlier.

The door was closed, of course, and Phil could hear objects being moved and the occasional incomprehensible unpleasantry being muttered. Deciding not to disturb, he simply stayed in the same position, listening intently with bated breath.

Dan took a deep breath as the camera began recording. It would be obvious to whoever saw it that this video wouldn’t be the norm, considering he had done nothing to his hair, was in the scruffiest t-shirt known to man and hadn’t made an effort in any way, shape or form.

“Hello Internet,” he began his trademark greeting, the calm before the storm.

“I’m not perfect” he gestured to himself, pulling on a few strands of wavy hair and bunching up the shirt in his fists to accentuate his point. “I only make an effort about two days a week, I literally could not be any more of a meme, I eat everything you’re told not to, and I lie”

Phil was becoming more intrigued by the second, even though it was likely he already knew said lie, even though this video was completely impromptu and seemingly unscripted, something that hadn’t come about since 2009. So, at the moment, Phil was as clueless as the audience would be.

“You might be asking yourself what lie? For once I don’t mean something stupid like lying about going for that run or denying eating Phil’s cereal, although a kind of similar ballpark…. You already know what I’m going to say here, don’t you?”

Just spell it out for them, just in case. Take your time, though, you can edit these parts out later.

“Yes, we are. We’re-”

“Private, close-ended” Phil interrupted, panting softly as a result of his mad dash to turn off the camera. Surprisingly, during Dan’s intense brainstorm session of the right way to film, Phil had slipped inside the room unnoticed and unheard.

“Let me do this” Dan insisted, reaching towards the camera again but Phil’s hand swiftly grasped his own.

“You don’t need to do this” Phil stated, and upon searching for any trace of insincerity in Phil’s expression, Dan found none.

“I just wanted you to have something on the Internet that you can go to when you feel like this, I know it’s not the first time…” Dan trailed off as he met Phil’s stare, not knowing where to lead the conversation next.

“You complete idiot. But I take it back, you can comfort, and I still love you… when you don’t try and out us because I hit a blip in mentality” Phil leaned his head on Dan’s shoulder, and Dan chuckled.

“As if I’d do that, love” he replied and placed a gentle kiss onto Phil’s head.

***

_Danisnotinteresting just uploaded a video_

The email ping abruptly ended Phil’s partly deserved lay-in, and waking to an empty bed that held two not many hours ago added to the oddities of the day thus far.

As soon as the subject of the email registered, Phil leapt out of Dan’s bed and started a mad dash around the flat, eventually finding the culprit of the sub-par panic in the kitchen, as casual as ever.

“Before you start, I presume you haven’t seen it” Dan commented as he turned to face Phil, and pointed to his laptop which laid on the kitchen counter, the video on his second channel readily loaded.

“Go on,” he encouraged, and Phil tore his gaze away and clicked the play button warily.

The video titled ‘???’ began, and in a comedically bad editing style ran all the bloopers from every collab they’d ever done together, the video jump-cutting just before the two kissed, which Phil noted happened a lot. A hell of a lot.

As the montage came to a close the clip ran for just a second longer teasing the Phan shippers all the more, the screen cut to black and ' _W h o k n o w s ?? #50shadesofphan_ ' in comic sans faded in and out and the video ended.

“What the hell was that?” Phil asked, holding back intense laughter and grinning widely.

“Who knows?” Dan shrugged, a goofy grin gracing his face.

Phil walked over to where Dan was stood, clearly a little on edge for Phil’s reaction.

“You’re such Phan trash” Phil teased, and Dan pouted.

“I try to be all romantic and show you that you’re valued and that I’d obviously snog, fuck and marry you and I just get this abuse, it’s-“

He was cut off with a kiss ten times more passionate than any in the video.

“This is probably a good time to mention I also made a tumblr post and a twitlonger about the whole thing” Dan whispered, and Phil rolled his eyes playfully, uncaring to the world’s opinion and reactions. There was no reason to give a fuck, really. Not when this is the ideal way for them to come out, the overwhelming air of ‘is it true or is it the editing’ and the undertone of sarcasm and irony.

“But when we do actually officially come out-“ Dan began, a little too caught up in the whole thing. He was doing all this because Phil had a breakdown, it was pretty inconceivable for Phil to wrap his head around.

“Shut up and kiss me” Phil interjected, despite how close they already were and what they had been doing for the last few minutes.

“As you wish” Dan obliged and leaned in again.

**Author's Note:**

> Dan may not be phan trash but I sure as hell am 
> 
> Thankyou for reading, I hope you enjoyed it x
> 
> Go show this and my other works some love on my blog; cafephan.tumblr.com


End file.
